by A. J. Morton
“Well that’s vague…” I said, disappointed. “But thanks for telling me.”
“You’re welcome. That is all I wished to discuss with you. I will return you to the surface now,” She said. “Xander Faust… Awaken!”
* * *
I awoke to find that we’d docked. I grabbed the air mask that was hanging off of my door, putting it on and heading out of the quarter deck. Travis, Ana, and the newest member of our team, Valerie, awaited me. We all stepped off of the gangplank together.
Krysta, Strelitzia, Dia, and a man with striking green hair and eyes were waiting for us on the docks. I took it that this man was Zephyr Makani, the Disciple of Ventus.
Krysta breathed a sigh of relief. “Whew… I saw a future for a brief second that involved you dying. Thank god that didn’t happen.” (Later, I had a serious conversation with her about telling us these things before we ended up almost getting killed. She said she’d think about it. She didn’t.) “Anyways, this is Zephyr Makani. Zephyr, say hi.” The way she said that made her sound more annoyed that she had found him than pleased.
“Heya! The name’s Zephyr! Nice to meet ya!” I was about to shake his hand, but he didn’t even look at me. Instead, he just kept talking. “Isn’t Pyros so awesome? And are we really gonna be living in a castle? How big is it? And-”
“So you’ve met Zephyr,” Krysta cut him off before he could go on a tangent. “As you can see, he likes to talk. A lot. Do not let him carry a conversation.”
I expected Zephyr to get mad at this, but he just shrugged. “Eh. Live and let live I guess! Now let’s kick some Umbran ass, fellas!”
“His unique characteristics aside, he will definitely make our next task much easier,” Krysta said. “Everyone, if you would, please head back onto the ship.”
The eight of us headed back onto the ship (Much to Ana’s displeasure). Krysta was the last one onboard.
“Now that we’re all here, we will now be proceeding to find the next Disciple,” Krysta informed us. “His name is Kai Strom, the Disciple of Aqua.”
I had been dreading this one. The Aquan Peninsula was on the coast of Ubiaxus on the opposite side of the map. Getting there would take a week at a minimum, and at the rate the Umbrans were trying to pick up Disciples, part of me doubted that we would even have that long before an Umbran found Kai first.
Judging by the looks Krysta got from everyone, I could tell that they were thinking the same thing. Krysta, however, looked as though she had a plan. “The trip would ordinarily take a week at a minimum,” Krysta said, as though she had read my mind. “However,… We have something that can change that. Zephyr.”
“Zephyr?” Ana asked, glancing skeptically at Zephyr. “How will he make any difference?”
Zephyr smirked confidently. “I see what you’re getting at, Krysta! Leave it to me!” All of a sudden, he rose off the ground and started floating high above us. “Hope you’re ready for something awesome!” He called down from above.
I could feel the ship beginning to shift in the water. The sails went from flat to full of wind. All at once, the ship began to slowly hoist itself out of the sea. Soon enough, the ship was flying just as high as Zephyr. “How do you like that?!” Zephyr said. “Your boat has turned into an airship! Feel free to bow down to my awesomeness!”
I couldn’t help but gape in awe at what I was experiencing. That Zephyr could carry the entire ship using his wind magic alone was incredible. Not only that, but now we could reach Aqua in record time. Within just a few minutes, everyone had gone from annoyed at Zephyr to amazed by him.
Krysta cracked a rare smile. “Just as I predicted…” She said. “Now Zephyr! Full speed ahead!” She commanded.
“On it!” Zephyr exclaimed. The ship suddenly lurched forth. Soon, it was soaring through the sky as fast as a bird, carried by Zepyr’s wind. He flew on the right side of the ship, steering it adeptly through the sky. We we all stared at him, amazed (Well, except for Ana, who was preoccupied with blowing chunks off of the other side).
“Isn’t this awesome?” He called out to us. “Flying is the absolute best, isn’t it?!”
“Yeah! It’s Epic!” Travis called back.
Zephyr did a flip in midair. “I’ve always wanted to travel the world!” He said. “So when I heard that this was a chance to, I said sign me right up! I feel so free!” At this point, he was doing tricks in midair, flipping and turning. He was glowing brightly, his vibrant green aura shining all around him.
There were stories about how of the gods, Ventus, the god of wind, traveled around the world of Ubiaxus twenty times, completely apart from the other gods. He desired freedom above all else. Zephyr was clearly the same. Freedom seemed to be etched into his entire being. It was instantly clear that that was his essence. He was one of the most amazing people I've ever met.
“By the way…” He said suddenly, as though just realizing something important. “Where is the Village of Aqua?” Looking at my compass, I realized that Zephyr was actually taking us farther away from the Village than closer to it.
I take it back. Maybe he wasn’t that amazing.
Chapter 9
“So… Remind us why we’re doing this again? What’s taking the ladies so long? Shouldn’t we be looking for the Disciple of Aqua? And what about-”
“Zephyr, please shut up,” I said, aggravated at Zephyr’s barrage of questions that even I couldn’t answer. “How should I know? Krysta hardly ever tells us her plans beforehand.”
We’d arrived at the Aquan Peninsula just about half an hour ago. The whole place seemed like it was one massive beach resort. There were tons of people, some of which I noticed weren’t even Aquan. I suppose that a place this nice made for a nice vacation spot even with the current tensions within Ubiaxus.
As soon as we got to the dock, Krysta handed us all swimsuits and told us to change into them. I thought this was a curious instruction, but I decided it was best to go along with her. Zephyr, Travis, and I were already changed, but the ladies were taking much longer. So, we sat on the bench outside of the changing room, waiting for them.
I could barely hear their muffled voices through the door. “Krysta, you can’t possibly expect me to wear this! It shows so much skin that I may as well be naked!” Strelitzia’s voice exclaimed.
“Just deal with it, it’s vital for the plan,” Krysta’s voice replied. “Besides… I’m pretty sure a certain Glacian will love it.”
“Wh-What do you think you’re talking about, Krysta?”
I could feel my cheeks starting to burn. Travis smiled wryly. “You hear that, Xander? Someone likes you.”
“Y-You shut up too, Travis,” I stammered. “It’s Krysta. She’s probably just pulling her leg.”
The ladies finally emerged from the changing room, dressed in their new swimsuits. As expected, all of them looked stunning. Dia and Ana were wearing matching one-piece dark blue swimsuits that complimented their long, luxurious golden hair. Looking at them side by side, I couldn’t even tell them apart.
Something about Krysta looked a bit different than usual. She’d aged herself, most likely to grow and fill out her swimsuit. Well it worked and even I had to admit that she was drop-dead gorgeous.
Strelitzia was the next one to file out of the room after Krysta, and when she did, my mouth almost went agape. Krysta had chosen a red string bikini for Strelitzia. Strelitzia always dressed in a cloak, so I’d never noticed just how… voluptuous she was. This was definitely one of the moments that I was actually more grateful for Krysta’s subtle sadism than appalled by it.
I tilted my head a bit. “Where’s Valerie?” While the others had all come out, she was still nowhere to be seen.
“Right about now, she’s probably looking at herself in shame,” Krysta replied with a self-satisfied smirk.
“Considering the swimsuit, you got her, I’m not surprised… It would even take an exhibitionist a few minutes to recover from it,” Ana said. She suddenly turned, glaring daggers at
Travis, who was staring at Dia, almost drooling. “And what might you be staring at, buffoon?” she seethed. Huh… So that was Travis’s type… Travis later told me that a very Krysta-like smirk appeared on my face.
“I… Uh… You see…” Travis stammered. “Hey, look it’s Valerie!” He quickly shifted the conversation to her, blushing.
The moment I saw Valerie in the skimpiest bikini I had ever seen, I wasn’t sure whether I should have been grateful to Krysta or sorry for Valerie. I decided a bit of both would be the most appropriate.
Valerie said nothing, but was giving Krysta a look that said, “You will regret this.”
“Now that the fun-I mean-preparations are done…” Krysta started.
“Wait, did you just say fun?” Strelitzia questioned.
Krysta ignored her. “The next Disciple will be a bit more difficult to locate.” She said. “She’s working at an extremely exclusive restaurant somewhere along the beach. As it stands, there’s only one way in.”
Travis started to reach for his axe, which was, as always, strapped to his back. “Force our way in?”
“Don’t be a buffoon,” Krysta said. She gestured to a few men in tuxedos that were scattered around the area. “Those gentlemen may appear to be simple butlers, but then they’re actually elite mages. A direct confrontation would be dangerous.”
“So what’s the plan?” I asked.
“Conveniently, today also happens to be the day of Aquos’s annual swimsuit contest. With this collection of beautiful women, I doubt that they wouldn’t let us in.” Krysta said. “Meanwhile, you boys will pretend to be in our audience, looking for our Disciple of Aqua. Any objection to the plan?” She asked this question in her usual arbitrary manner that indicated that there was no room for objection.
And so, we proceeded with Krysta’s plan.
* * *
As Krysta predicted, they let us into the restaurant with no issues. Before we went in, Krysta told me to put in some blue contacts and a blue wig to hide my Glacian heritage. Apparently, even though this place was accepting of people from just about any of the nations, it seemed that even this place feared Glacians.
Travis, Zephyr, and I were positioned near the back of the restaurant, so we had a view of the entire place.
“So Xander? Any sign of he?” Travis asked.
“Nope. I haven’t felt anything so far.”
Before we went in, Krysta had taught us how to sense the presence of other Disciplines.
“As you all know, each and every magical being in the world has an aura,” She had said. “This applies to us Disciples as well. But ours are slightly different.”
“How?” I had asked.
“Our auras are so potent that they can be subtly sensed by anyone in proximity, assuming that they are within the area. It’s such a small difference that no one who’s not looking will ever notice it. But we are looking.”
“Can you describe the way it feels?” I asked.
“Hmm… It’s hard to describe,” Krysta pondered. “It’s just a certain… divinity that they have that others don’t. It’s the same for all Disciples. Anyways, I have full confidence that you’ll know it when you see it.”
I pondered this for a few moments. We’d been in here for almost ten minutes and I still hadn’t noticed any particular divinity to anyone in particular.
“Uh… Guys?” Zephyr started. “It looks like we have other problems.” He gestured subtly to a nearby table to our left. “That group of eight men… They’re Umbrans. All of them.”
Crap… so now we had them to deal with? If we didn’t hurry and figure this out, we were going to have a fiasco.
A few moments later, our waiter came to us. “Gentlemen? May I take your order?” He was a rather plain-looking man, nothing special about him at all. But still, something drove me to look at his name tag just to be safe. My eyes widened. “Kai Strom” Was the name on the tag. Our target had quite literally come to us. But I had to be sure. “My arms are sore from the long journey to the village.” A quick lie that Krysta told me to say if I couldn’t sense his aura right away. The Aquans were hospitable and would agree to even the most bizarre requests.
And it worked. Kai reaches to hand me a napkin without so much as a second thought. I focused on his hand as it moved towards mine. This would have to be fast, or else it would all be for nothing. I literally had an instant to pull this off.
As his hand inched closer to mine, I started to feel the presence of his aura. It had a sort of humidity to that it, as expected from a follower of the goddess of water. But there was something more beneath that… Something more powerful. More divine. It was the same as the indescribable feeling that I had when Strelitzia touched my hand back in Glacia.
There was no doubt about it. This was our guy.
Unfortunately for us, we I wasn’t the only one who noticed. The Umbrans next to us abruptly darted up from their chairs. They didn’t have quite the same overwhelming presence as Tenebris, but I could tell that they were at least three quarters as strong.
The man who seemed to be their leader smashed his hand against the table. The sound resonated throughout the room. The entire restaurant went silent. The man spoke with authority, his voice booming loud enough for everyone to hear. “I am here under the orders of the esteemed empress of the Umbran Empire, lady Nox Nihil!” He said. The nearby waiters gasped. They drew rapiers of water, forged from the moisture in the air.
“I wouldn’t use those if I were you…” The Umbran leader advised. It would take you a lot of effort to kill me. And time. And my soldiers may get bored and decide to entertain themselves by collecting your guests’ corpses.”
So, this was his game… He wasn’t like the rest of the Umbrans that I had met. The others that I had met forced themselves in and made a point of killing everyone in sight. This one seemed averse to that strategy.
“Anyways, we came here on business,” The Umbran said. “There’s no need to fear. We aren’t going to kill you unless you give us a reason to. We’re here for one specific person. A man by the name of Kai Strom. If he comes to us, then there’s no need at all for anyone to get hurt.”
“But I would hurry,” he added. “My boys tend to get a bit angry when they’re bored. I would hate for something to happen to your customers.”
Shit… So, they’d managed to rope us all into a hostage situation… And Kai Strom was the ransom. I turned to Kai. To my surprise, he was smiling despite everything.
He turned to face the Umbrans. “And what if I don’t want to come with you?” He inquired.
The Umbran leader blinked. “Then I’ll have to force you, of course.”
Even in the situation he was in, I heard a small chuckle escape Kai’s mouth. “And if I were to stop you from doing so?”
The Umbran laughed. “That’s not happening. I’m one of the strongest- AGH!” The Umbran’s sentence was cut off. Literally. In almost an instant, Kai whipped out a rapier and sliced the Umbran’s throat. The Umbran’s head rolled off his body and fell to the floor with a thunk.
“Oh my, how rude of me…” Kai said nonchalantly. “It seems that I have gotten blood on our pristine floorboards.” He glanced to the remaining Umbran lackeys, who were still reeling with shock. “I take it that was the strongest one in your party. I would hate for the floor to be stained with more blood, so I would recommend that you take your leave as well.” He pointed his rapier at them threateningly. The Umbrans hesitantly made their way through the open door. “Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the disturbance. Please return to your meals.” Kai said. Moments later, everyone returned to their meals as though nothing had ever happened.
Kai turned back to the Umbran, but the corpse was gone. “Well, that’s disappointing…” He muttered.
I got up and walked over to Kai. He was definitely our man. The way he took down that Umbran… there was no doubt about it. He was a Disciple. I tapped on his shoulder. Turned around and looked me in my eye. “Listen
… May I speak to you? It’s important,” I asked.
“Yes sir. Anything you wish.” Kai sat down in an extra chair that just so happened to be at our table. “So. What is it that you wish to discuss with me?”
We explained our situation to him. He sat patiently and listened to us. “So in short, we need for you to come with us to stop the Umbran Empire,” I finished explaining. “So. Will you come with us?” I asked.
Kai thought about this for a few moments. “Your plan has merit… But are you sure that all it will take to defeat an empire is just nine people?”
“We have the Seer of Kronos on our side,” Travis reassured him. “And if she says so, she’s probably right.”
Kai nodded apprehensively. “Very well then,” he said. “If this will soothe the unrest in Ubiaxus, then I will be happy to help you. Where are the others in your party?” He asked.
Just then, a voice called from the restaurant’s stage. “Ladies and gentlemen! Let the annual swimsuit competition begin!”
All eyes darted to the stage, where the swimsuit models had arrived. At the center of them all were Strelitzia, Ana, Dia, Krysta, and Valerie, all in their new swimsuits.
“That… Would be them…” I said.
Kai’s eyes widened. “Gentlemen, at this very moment, any cause for concern has left me.”
And so, we picked up the eighth member of our team. Our progression should have pleased me, but instead, it filled me with dread. For I had realized that now there was only one Disciple left to find.
The Disciple of Umbra herself.
Chapter 10
Soon after the swimsuit competition was over (Strelitzia was the winner, much to her chagrin.), we made our way back to the ship. Krysta gathered us all at the front deck to discuss our next order of business.
Once we were gathered at the front deck, Krysta spoke. She had reverted to her original, smaller, form after we made it back to the ship. “To begin with, I would like to welcome Kai to our team,” She began. “He, like all of you, will be an asset to the team.”
